1. Field of the Invention
The present invention relates to voltage regulators and, more particularly, to a voltage regulator for use in a low-consumption circuit system.
2. Description of the Related Art
In a circuit system constituted by various devices which perform different functions in a coordinated manner, it is known, in order to reduce energy consumption, to supply energy only to the devices which are necessary to the system at the time in question in preselected operating conditions, whilst the devices which are not necessary are kept in a waiting or standby state in which energy consumption is very low. In many cases, it is important for the transition from the standby state to the active state to be quick and free of transients.
A circuit system of this type is that which controls the operation of a non-volatile memory. To illustrate the invention, reference will be made below to such an application and, in particular, to a multilevel non-volatile memory.
In a multilevel memory, each cell can adopt several threshold-voltage levels so that it is possible to store several bits in each individual cell. A cell which can store n bits will therefore be characterized by 2n possible threshold-voltage distributions.
Clearly, as the number of threshold-voltage levels increases, the precision requirements in order for the operations of the cell, in particular, the programming and reading operations, to be performed correctly, also increase. As is known, programming takes place by applying a voltage which is variable in steps to the row (or word line) containing the cell to be programmed, that is, to the gate terminals of all of the cells of a row, and by applying a relatively high voltage to the column line, that is, to the drain terminal of the cell. According to a conventional procedure, reading takes place by applying a fixed voltage to the row line of the cell to be read and measuring the current which flows through the column line of the cell. The value of the current measured indicates the logic state of the cell.
It is difficult to achieve the necessary precision in multilevel memories with a low supply voltage (3V or less). In these cases, the high voltages which are necessary for the reading, programming and erasure operations are generated by voltage-boosters based on the charge-pump principle. As is known, a charge pump is a generator with characteristics quite different from those of an ideal voltage generator; in fact, it has a fairly high output resistance so that the output voltage is greatly dependent on the load. Moreover, after overloading, it requires quite a long time to return to the nominal output voltage. Moreover, since the nominal output voltage cannot be set precisely, it is necessary to associate with the charge pump a regulation circuit that contributes to energy consumption.
To reduce consumption, the voltage-boosters are normally deactivated when the device to which they belong is in the standby state. In ideal conditions, the voltages present at the output nodes of the voltage-boosters would remain constant indefinitely but, in practice, they decrease within fairly short periods of time, due to current leakage at the junctions of the transistors connected to the output nodes. When a transition takes place from the standby state to the active state, it is therefore not possible to reach the necessary biasing voltage quickly and with the desired accuracy.
FIG. 1 shows schematically a known circuit system for biasing a row line of a non-volatile memory which uses a voltage-booster. A non-volatile memory, for example, a four-level flash memory supplied at 3V, is formed by a plurality of memory cells 10 arranged in rows and columns. In particular, the cells 10 belonging to the same row have their respective gate electrodes connected to a common row line 11. A row decoder 12 selectively connects one of the row lines 11 to the output terminal OUT of a voltage-booster 9. A capacitor 13 connected between the output terminal OUT and the earth terminal of the circuit system represents the stray capacitance of the decoder circuits 12 and, when a row line is connected, the stray capacitance of the line.
The voltage-booster 9 comprises a charge pump 14 with an output capacitor 17 and a voltage regulator. The charge pump 14 is connected to a node 16 to which a supply terminal of the regulator is connected. The regulator comprises a comparator 18, a reference-voltage source 20, and a feedback circuit. The comparator 18 is preferably constituted by a differential input stage, by a power output stage, and by a frequency-compensation circuit (not shown). The output of the comparator 18 is also the output OUT of the regulator and is connected, by means of a switch SW1, to a standby-voltage generator 19. The node 16 is also connected to the standby-voltage generator 19 by means of a switch SW2.
The comparator 18 has a first, non-inverting input terminal (+) connected to the reference-voltage source 20 and a second, inverting input terminal (xe2x88x92) which is connected to the output terminal OUT by means of the feedback circuit. The feedback circuit comprises a resistive divider 21 which is connected, on one side, to the output OUT by means of a switch SW3 and, on the other side, to a common reference terminal of the circuit, in this example, to the earth, and which has an intermediate tap connected to the inverting input of the comparator 18 at a node F and to earth by means of a switch SW4.
The reference-voltage source 20, which is preferably a xe2x80x9cbandgapxe2x80x9d circuit, is never deactivated unless the supply is removed from the device as a whole, because its turn-on and reference-voltage regulation time is quite long (10xcexcs). However, it can be formed so as to dissipate a fairly low current (10xcexcA).
A control circuit 22, which preferably forms part of the logic control unit of the memory, generates a standby signal SB which activates or deactivates the charge pump 14 and opens or closes the switches SW1-SW4. In FIG. 1, the switches are shown in the positions corresponding to a high-level signal SB, that is, when the circuit is in standby condition.
The divider 21 comprises a fixed resistive element R0 and a resistive element R1 which is variable in dependence on the state of an n-bit digital signal S0-Snxe2x88x921. Variation of the division ratio of the divider 21 causes the feedback coefficient of the regulator also to vary. It can easily be shown that the voltage Vout at the output terminal OUT is
Vout=Vref(1+R1/R0),
where Vref is the voltage of the reference-voltage source 20; the regulator thus forms a D/A (digital/analog) converter the output voltage Vout of which is the analog quantity corresponding to a combination of states of the inputs S0-Snxe2x88x921, that is, to a binary input number.
In controlling the standby state, it is necessary to address two problems, that is: to find a way to reduce overall consumption by deactivating some circuits without turning them off completely so that they can be turned on again quickly, and to prevent spurious transients upon leaving the standby state.
In a circuit of the type shown in FIG. 1, the first problem can be solved if, in a standby state, the output OUT and the voltage at the node 16 are kept at a voltage value equal to or slightly greater than the operating voltage. For this purpose, a low-consumption generator 19 with an output voltage Voutsb is connected to the output OUT and to the node 16 in the standby state (SW1 and SW2 closed). A generator usable in the circuit of FIG. 1 is described, for example, in the Applicant""s European patent application entitled xe2x80x9cA voltage-raising device for non-volatile memories operating in a low-consumption standby conditionxe2x80x9d.
The second problem can be solved only by avoiding any capacitive component in the feedback circuit of the regulator, as will be understood from the following.
With reference to FIGS. 1 and 2, in standby (signal SB high), the charge pump 14 is deactivated, the output OUT and the node 16 are connected to the output of the low-consumption generator 19 by the switches SW1 and SW2, the feedback circuit is deactivated since the switch SW3 is open, and the inverting input terminal (xe2x88x92) of the comparator 18 is connected to earth by means of the switch SW4; the consumption of the feedback circuit in standby is thus zero. When it is necessary to change from the standby state to the active state (SB low in FIG. 2), the voltage at the terminal OUT is almost at the correct value (for example, if the regulator has to supply a reading voltage Vread=6V, Vout=Voutsb may be 6.2V) and the regulator should not therefore have to supply current to the load. However, this is true only if the feedback voltage Vf, that is, the voltage of the inverting terminal (xe2x88x92) of the comparator 18, is equal to the voltage (Vref) of the non-inverting terminal (+). Since the inverting terminal (xe2x88x92) is earthed in the standby state, the time taken to return to the voltage Vref depends on the stray capacitances of the feedback circuit. During the charging of these capacitances, the voltage at the inverting terminal (xe2x88x92) of the comparator 18 increases from 0 to Vref and the regulator supplies current to the load so that there is an undesired transient, possibly of considerable amplitude, for example, 0.6-0.7V, at the terminal OUT, as can be seen in FIG. 2.
To prevent or to reduce this effect as far as possible it is necessary to design the feedback circuit in a manner such that the capacitances associated therewith are as low as possible. To satisfy this requirement, it is not possible to form the divider 21 with resistive elements formed by diffused xe2x80x9cwellxe2x80x9d regions and by MOS field-effect transistors, as would be appropriate and advantageous, particularly if a precise and variable division ration controlled by a digital signal is to be obtained.
The disclosed embodiment of the present invention provides a regulator of the type described above which, whilst having a feedback circuit with significant capacitive components, does not have transient effects upon a transition from the standby state to the active state.
In accordance with one embodiment of the invention, a voltage regulator is provided that includes a comparator having a first input terminal, a second input terminal, and an output terminal; a first reference voltage source that provides a reference voltage to the first input terminal of the comparator; a feedback circuit connected between the output terminal and the second input terminal of the comparator; a second reference-voltage source that provides a reference voltage substantially equal to the reference voltage of the first reference-voltage source; a controllable switch to connect the second reference-voltage source to the second input terminal of the comparator; and a control circuit for activating the supply of the regulator and for closing the controllable switch for a predetermined period of time when the supply of the regulator is activated.